One area the Philadelphia Flyers could use help is on defense and they’re looking to address that in training camp.

Fluto Shinzawa of the Boston Globe reports the Flyers have invited veteran blue liner Hal Gill to camp on a tryout. The 38-year-old, 6’7″ defenseman spent the past season and a half with the Nashville Predators. Previous to that he’s played for Montreal, Pittsburgh, Toronto, and Boston.

In his run with the Preds last season, Gill averaged just over 13 minutes per game as a third-pair defenseman. In 32 games he had no points, 12 penalty minutes, and was a minus-3.

I disagree. First off, the Flyers have 7 or 8 defenders on one-way deals already. The only guy they might want to move out is Meszaros. But even if they do their top-6 is essentially set with Timonen, Schenn, Coburn, Streit, Grossmann, and Gustafsson. There’s really no space for moves. I mean, I’d rather have Gill as our #7 over Gervais, but that’s about it. There are no real impact defenders available so I think Holmgren will stand pat and wait to see how his guys perform. It’s more likely they’re active down the line when they see what they really have.

Haha Don Maloney would be run out of Arizona by the few Coyotes fans there if he accepted a deal like that. Any Yandle to the Flyers deal would have to involve Couturier or BSchenn, otherwise Maloney would not accept it. Yandle was the Yotes leading scorer this past season and defensemen are the premium position so there’s no way they’d accept a future 3rd liner and an injury-prone shell in the last year of his deal. Even if a 1st was included.

the next time a game changing defenseman on the market, Philly will be among the top teams interested, guaranteed. However, none of those guys are available right now. They may bring in some aging vets to see if they have another year left in the tank (Gil), but they won’t be making any big moves

He’s definitely not worth what Phoenix has asked for him, but you can’t say he wouldn’t upgrade the Flyers blueline. Of course, what the Flyers really need is more along the lines of a Pronger/Weber-type, as opposed to a Yandle or Letang (not that I wouldn’t love either). I think it’s safe to say Yandle is individually better than anything the Flyers have (Timonen in his prime was better), but he’s still somewhat overrated.

I am actually thinking there could be a deal in place moving 2 flyers D and one of their 7 centres for a D upgrade.

Something along flyers moving Mez, coburn/grossmen, B.schenn, maybe add a pick and or a prospect if looking to grab a major upgrade. Of course a move like this would have to be done in a 3-way deal.

I would not hate the suggested Yandle bid but it would be closer to something like
B.schenn, cousins, a 2nd, 2 of the 3 D mentioned above… Depending on who the 3rd party is in the deal and what they would take, I can see the yotes getting another centre

Twpguy1964 nailed it. Get rid of Gervais any way possible (why did they sign him anyway?) and move Gill into that 7th defenseman slot. At least Gill can contribute on the defensive end, whereas, Gervais brings nothing to the table.

They signed him in part because he has ok wheels, and compared to a guy named Foster they signed, Gervais looked like Bobby Orr. To be fair, Gervais was ok when playing limited minutes but I’d rather Gill, especially in the playoffs where he’s usually a beast